Juli Asks about Summer Scrapbooking

Welcome to Juli Asks, a series where Juli, one of our Awesome Ladies members, who’s just getting into scrapbooking, asks rukristin for advice. Learn from this series and ask questions of your own.

Juli: I feel like scrapbooking is a great hobby for snowy, freezing cold winter days. Now that the weather is getting warmer and summer is starting, I’m finding that I’m not as interested in staying inside and crafting. I know I’ll still have summer stories that I’ll want to document. What are some of your strategies for enjoying the summer weather while also scrapbooking fun summer memories? 

Love this question. The first thing that I want to talk about is Megan Anderson’s phrase, ‘document now, make later’ which is a quick way of saying — take the photos and jot down some notes for the things you’re going to want to scrapbook later, but don’t get caught up in actually thinking about how you’re going to scrapbook it. And definitely, don’t worry about scrapbooking your summer memories now, you’ll have plenty of time to do that when the weather gets cold and dark and snowy. 

My favorite way to do this is with Ali Edwards Story Planner, which is just a small binder that houses notes on the stories I want to scrapbook at a later date. It has pockets for pictures and bits that I’ve got saved up and it lets me get the planning of the story out of the way. Which is really good for my Type A personality — to know that I have the story planned and out of the way and that I have the fun stuff (making the page) saved up for later (the winter) when I need a pick me up. 

I do like to print out my photos regularly (the ones I send out for — like to Amazon and the like) so I’ll put those in the binder with the stories ready to go.

And if you’re also feeling like you just want to scrapbook one night? You’ll have a bunch of stories saved up and ready to go. You can just create a page or two and you’ll get a whole little burst of creativity all in just an hour or two. 

Juli: With summer I also find myself craving more phone-free time. I just want to get outside and forget technology. My issue is that my phone is my primary way of photos. I don’t always like the hassle of carrying around my DSLR camera. What are your recommendations for summer photography? 

rukristin: Yesssssssss. I totally get this. I feel like summer is supposed to be all about freedom, and being away from the phone is freedom. At the same time, freedom means being able to do the things you want and love to do — which means taking photos of the things you love. I have a couple of recommendations. I think each of them serves a different purpose and will work better in a specific place and time. 

1. Spend 5-10 minutes at the start of whatever you’re doing and take some pictures, and then be done. This is my rule when I go to concerts and other events. I set myself a designated ‘get some photos to scrapbook time’ — usually 5 minutes in the beginning and maybe 5 minutes near the middle-end if I’m feeling it, and then the rest of the time is ‘enjoy this event time’ with no thinking about taking photos. 
2. Turn on Airplane Mode on Your Phone. Yes — you could still be distracted by a bunch of things, mainly games. But you’re not going to be connected to the internet, so no texts, no phone, no web browser, no IG, FB, social media, or anything that connects you to another human. But you do have the camera. I feel so much more in tune to my camera and my phone as a photo-taking machine when its in airplane mode. 
3. Put a small prime lens on your DSLR. My favorite lens for my DSLR is a 50mm prime. It is VERY lightweight and feels much more like a point and shoot than when I have any of the normal zoom lenses on the camera. I don’t feel weighed down by it, and I won’t even bring my camera bag with me when I have the prime lens on because the camera is nice and compact. 
4. Get a small point and shoot. You can get a decent point and shoot for between $100 and $200 and possibly even lower if you wait around to find a good deal. You can throw it in your purse and it’ll take awesome pictures and you won’t even have to have your phone on you. 
5. Get a toy camera like an Instax or other polaroid type camera. These are so much fun. Even though they don’t take the greatest photos, it’s summer and the light is usually awesome, which makes up for a ton. 
6. If you’re out with friends/family, take turns with others on who brings the camera and share photos. If you’re at a summer event, make sure to pass around the photos so that you get all the pictures from everyone at the party/event. You can use a shared dropbox, or text photos to each other, or Airdrop if you’re all on iPhones. 

Most of all — have fun with it. There are always going to be pictures that you miss. Don’t sweat it too much. Enjoy the moments and remember that you can always tell those stories with words and paper crafts too. There’s nothing stopping you from telling a story without a photo, or swapping in a different photo to represent a story. Enjoy the summer while it’s here. They’re always gone too soon ♥.